


floor 73

by surge



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Conversations, F/M, Family Feels, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Loki (mentioned) - Freeform, One Shot, Siblings, Strangers to Lovers, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-23 10:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14330529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surge/pseuds/surge
Summary: "This- I just remembered. This is the second time I've been stuck in a broken elevator.""Was the first time as fun as now?" Hilde asks, trying her best to not sound as sarcastic as she feels.But Thor starts chuckling, a low rumble that almost sounds warm."With my brother? Never. But it was an exception when we got stuck."Hilde cocks her head. "Why?""Tossed him through the glass. I mean, we were only on the second floor and it was after hours so one would get hurt below. Told him to get help, I was still stuck in the elevator but he just flipped me off and ran away." Thor snickers. "I was stuck there for four more hours before someone noticed the mess and me."-a.k.a. brunnhilde and thor get stuck in an elevator.





	floor 73

Hilde's not pleased when she barrels into the side of the man beside her.

The small space she stands in rumbles beneath her feet once again, finally startling the man to help steady her.

His gentle, but firm grip pulls her to her full height, still barely reaching his own at a head taller than her. He lets go almost slowly, but fast enough to not make it uncomfortable.

Hilde bites the inside of her cheek. Tries not to damn herself for not pushing the 'close' button more when she first saw the man in the pricey suit rush over to the already closing elevator doors.

She hates this building, she's been working here for ages and wouldn't have hurt any more to be stuck in the lift alone.

Entire nations could've fit the Nine Realms Tower and she still would've felt alone either way.

She pushes the thought to the back of her mind and instead draws her eyes to the flashing screen, bright in the flickering lights above her, stuck on _FLOOR 73._

The man accompanying her in the lift walks forward to try his hand at pushing the elevator doors open, his large frame straining against it to no avail. 

Hilde pushes forward, dropping her suitcase beside her on the floor and flexing her palm. She could try her hand at this too.

A small smile flashes from the man in the corner of her eye when she joins him, and Hilde pushes at the doors with him.

The doors creak, almost, in the silence of their breathing. But they don't budge.

"It's not moving," Hilde huffs, pushing back on her heels and giving up. She pushes back her hair at her forehead. "It's alright." 

He stops at once, alongside her, and nods.

"We better try the emergency phone, then." The man beside her starts, breath heavy and voice low as the rumble of thunder.

Hilde hums in agreement, but raises a brow when the man doesn't move forward to press the button himself.

The man looks back at her, blue gaze darting back and forth between her and the panel until he shuffles forward. "It's the one with the bell right? Or the red-."

"I don't know. They all look the same to me." Hilde drawls, crossing her arms.

"Yeah- I'll just try them all." The man mumbles, first pressing down the red ones and then waiting for static words to come out of the speaker in the wall.

Hilde watches, expectant.

Static fizzes out the speaker, following by piercing beeps.

"I didn't do anything, I swear," The man announces, throwings his hands up in the air and shrugging wide shoulders.

Hilde only walks up to the panel, brushing past him slightly when he fails to move out of her way quick enough.

"Come on, just shut up." She grumbles. She presses a button, then again, and again, and starts jamming her finger at all the ones the man beside her had pressed, until her finger reaches the button with a 'x' on it.

The beeping stops, and Hilde sighs through her nose.

She steps back, bumping once again into the person with her in the stupidly cramped elevator.

"Sorry again." He says, flashing a smile. "Good job, with the panels."

Hilde only looks into his eyes, and flashes a smirk back, drawing her phone out of her pocket.

She taps at the screen, turning it on only to stare at the signal-less icons drawn along the top of the screen. She scowls.

"Check your phone for a signal, I can't get mine right now." She mutters, shoving her phone back in to her jacket.

"A phone? I don't have one." The man quips, walking towards her with hands drawn out of pockets.

Hilde only raises her brows. "You don't have one?"

"Yeah, what's the point? It's complicated, weird looking, doesn't help you much-" He answers.

"What? It'd be helpful in situations like this." Hilde retorts, hand on hip.

"Is it really? I mean, yours isn't really helping." He grins, crossing his arms against his chest.

Hilde stares at the man, trying her hardest not to laugh. She decides to travels to the back of the elevator.

She's glad enough it's a glass elevator. The city stretches out beyond in the view in front of her, and she loves it, she's always loved being up high. But the world before her doesn't make the space she's in any smaller.

Hilde wonders how much longer she'll have to stay here.

-

Thor really doesn't know what to do.

The woman in front of him stands, back to him and glaring at the view on the other side of the glass, a bustling city he'd grow tired of over the years.

It's his first week back at the Nine Realms Tower, and he's already become stuck in an elevator for the second time and pissed off the woman in it with him.

And honestly, her being unexpectedly pretty too, doesn't make it any better.

He steps forward to stand beside her and to attempt making small talk.

"I'm Thor," He smiled, offering his hand to her.

"Brunnhilde." She replies, not offering her own hand in return.

Thor leaves his hand there. It's awkward enough.

Brunnhilde only stays silent for a few more seconds, before drawing her gaze to him, then his hand, and finally taking it.

Only for a moment, being this close to her makes her look familiar, in the way she grasps his hand with virtue that doesn't reach her expression.

"I'm guessing you want to be stuck here?" She asks, raising a brow the way he's seen a few times already.

Thor nods, humming from his throat. "Well, I don't really mind."

"I do." Brunnhilde says, eyes reaching his.

Thor smiles an awkward smile.

"They'll figure out that we're both gone soon." Thor mumbles in response, pulling at his cuffs and sliding against the wall to sit down on the floor. "Soon enough."

Brunnhilde doesn't respond. Her gaze follows the cars on the intersections below. 

"Which division? Are you in?" Thor blurts, hoping she still might tolerate a little small talk.

"Human resources. Recruitment and hiring mainly, I guess."

"That's fun."

"It pays. That's the only fun part of it." Brunnhilde murmurs, turning away from the glass and deciding to sit down on the floor beside Thor. 

Thor watches her drag her suitcase towards her, fiddling at the claps until it comes undone. Papers spill out, half of them crumpled and scribbled on, and photos of employees folded in between.

His eyes scan over them, noticing Bruce and Korg and some other familiar faces. He smiles at the thought of his lumbering and kind of smart (he believes) friends.

Brunnhilde's hands scour through the papers, making Thor feel like he should either ask what's she's looking for or help her whether she'd answer or not. 

Thor bobs his head in surprise when Brunnhilde draws out a flask out beneath her papers finally, clutching it in an annoyed type of relief in finally finding it after so long. It's not what he expected, he'll be honest, of Brunnhilde but he can't help but think she looks elegant, intimidating, and tired all at the same time downing the flask of who-knows-what. 

Brunnhilde swallows, in a quick few seconds, and there's no sound of a quiet swish left in the silver flask. She looks at Thor looking at her.

"What?" She says, raising a brow. "There's no more." 

"Oh I don't want any-" Thor mumbles, waving a hand in the air. '"I'm just impressed- and confused."

Brunnhilde only flashes a small smirk at him and tosses her flask to the side. Snaps her gaze around the small space between them and sighs through her nose quietly.

"Where do you work, then?" She asks, drawling her words.

Thor takes a moment to answer, realizing he hasn't mentioned anything much about himself yet like he usually would. He smiles softly. It's almost as if he doesn't want to tell Brunnhilde. 

As much power he and his family had in the Tower, he felt like Brunnhilde wouldn't be impressed- or feel anything for the matter- either way.

"I don't really know what I do here." Thor mumbles, scratching his head. He really doesn't- there's not much to do but argue stocks or whatever at foreign branches on his father's behalf.

"Then why are you here, Thor?" Brunnhilde inquires.

Thor doesn't know how to answer. "Why are you?"

Brunnhilde only stares. 

He only expects her to answer with _"It's my job."_ But Brunnhilde frowns and looks away.

"I got stuck here by myself. That's why." 

Thor swallows. And wants to ask why, ask for more.

But Brunnhilde looks away, a look of exhaustion and abandon on her face. 

-

Hilde hates this. 

It's enough that she's stuck, finished up her only flask, and totally going to town with revealing too much of her personal life with this pretty, almost too relaxed stranger in this elevator.

It doesn't help that he looks too damn familiar too, with way he squinted with his right eye every time he smiled. 

Odin did that. 

He wasn't much of a boss in those days.

Hilde snaps her head up when Thor starts to chuckle, pushing her thoughts to the back of her head.

"This- I just remembered. This is the second time I've been stuck in a broken elevator."

"Was the first time as fun as now?" Hilde asks, trying her best to not sound as sarcastic as she feels. 

But Thor starts chuckling, a low rumble that almost sounds warm.

"With my brother? Never. But it was an exception when we got stuck."

Hilde cocks her head. "Why?"

"Tossed him through the glass. I mean, we were only on the second floor and it was after hours so one would get hurt below. Told him to get help, I was still stuck in the elevator but he just flipped me off and ran away." Thor snickers. "I was stuck there for four more hours before someone noticed the mess and me."

It's Hilde that laughs now, and realizes she has when Thor looks at her with a smile. She covers it up, with a smirk, feeling less than comfortable even with a genuine smile she can't seem to wipe off her face.

"My sisters- they were the same." 

Thor nods, a soft grin on his face. "Tell me about your sisters, then."

Brunnhilde does. She doesn't expect herself to. But she does, she tells him their names, Eir, Kára, Sigrún and smiles all the while. 

There's a click of recognition in Thor's eyes and they widen at the mention of her sisters' names, she doesn't know which. But he grins, and mentions the Valkyries.

"What? Valkyries?" She asks, almost curious.

"Yeah- Valkyries. They were what my brother and I called- Odin's security detail."

"So you called me and my sisters a strange nerd name behind our backs."

Thor coughs. "We were fans- not in a weird way." His eyes look at her with a newfound respect- yet still the soft, blue gaze she saw when he first walked in through those elevator doors.

So Hilde only rolls her eyes instead, and hesitates when Thor asks her continue telling him about her sisters. But the smile on his face convinces her otherwise.

She tells Thor of the times they teased her about her crushes as children to working together at the Tower. How Eir always rolled her eyes when she laughed, Kára who could open a beer bottle with her teeth, and Sigrún with her dark braid always plaited on her shoulder.

She asks Thor to tell her the same. About his brother. He tells her how they look absolutely nothing alike, how vexing he can be but how Thor loves him nonetheless. He's smart, he says, he's good. He knows it.

So they smile softly together. There's not much laughing, only pleasant smiles and long gazes at the scenery in front of them. The slowing city, and the rolling clouds. They tell each other their stories, memories, the promises they regret making and the ones they don't.

The sun glows behind them, framed by a dark golden sky. It only makes their eyes look brighter.

Hilde reaches front to her feet, taking off the dress-required heels she hates for the way it scrunches her toes together. She presses her lips together, and looks to the blazer that looks costly enough, shucked to the floor too by Thor.

Then she looks to him, who's closer beside her than she realized. 

All the time passed, and she's gotten lost in the moment.

She doesn't feel alone anymore. The whole building, with all its people that she's passed every day, the bustle of the city below, had always made her feel empty but the now she was in- she felt real. 

Hilde smiles at the thought. Then at Thor.

Thor's smiling too, but he looks down, his eyebrows knitted together. 

Hilde swallows her laughter. Looks at Thor's head drawn to his hands wringing.

"It's feels- bad right? When someone you love leaves." He mutters. 

Hilde purses her lips. "It's easier to try to feel nothing." She murmurs. But she knows what he's talking about. She knows what it feels like.

"You miss your sisters don't you?" Thor asks. Finally, after a long stretch of silence.

Hilde blanks, gaze running empty. She never mentioned them leaving in all the time. She never mentioned losing them.

"I do." She breathes. 

Thor nods ever so slightly.

"Who did you lose?" She asks in return.

He draws his gaze to the sun.

"My father," He says. "A few days ago."

Hilde's eyes flicker. "I'm sorry, Thor." 

"You weren't close to him, I believe." Thor says dodgingly, almost sounding like a question.

Hilde turns her attention to Thor, opening her mouth to answer, but not knowing how.

Then she realizes.

He had Odin's eyes. Of course. But he didn't have the same smile.

That smile, she knew, was otherworldly. It was warm, and flashed as quickly as thunder. Too perfect, too much of his own self in it to be anyone else's. 

"No. When I worked for him there wasn't much else other than work with him." She answers then, eyes unmoving from his lips.

"But-" Thor says, the way he speaks sounding careful and gentle. "You don't blame him for your sisters?"

Hilde turns her gaze back to his eyes. "He didn't give my sisters the job that killed them. It was his daughter- your sister, then." 

Thor quiets, and nods once. He doesn't look back at her. "I'm sorry. They seemed like amazing people."

"They were." 

Hilde breathes. The sun starts to set before them.

Thor gets up slowly, but it's a while before Hilde even realizes he's on his feet. He turns to her and offers a hand. 

She wants to ask why, but she doesn't. She takes his hand, and it's steady and warm. 

She pulls herself to the glass with him, the small elevator seeming so much larger with only the view in front of them. 

The sun dusks slowly, skies purpling drifting with soft clouds. The traffic below seems viscous and slow as the clouds above.

And Hilde, she doesn't even realize Thor's hand is still on hers. 

They watch the sun inch away, the sky blanketing it and hushing it away. Thor's hand moves against hers. 

Then he looks at her. 

He's close to her, so close to her and eyes drifting from her to her lips.

"You're too close to me." She says without thinking, and Thor stops and chuckles in embarrassment. He draws away from her and it makes her look back to the glass.

And look back to him.

She walks to him, then, hand reaching for his cheek, and lips apart.

"Brunnhilde." 

In that moment, Hilde knows how much she's missed being called _'Hilde'._

So she answers, her breath warm against his. "Hilde."

He's so close to her, she thinks, and the sun feels so much warmer against her skin through the glass.

She knows in the moment, she wants to kiss Thor. As much as she thought she wouldn't want to.

So she does anyway. 

Hilde kisses him, and draws her hand to his jaw and smiles against his lips, and she can feel him do the same.

She's not close to the same height as Thor, but she still hangs her arm on his neck and pulls him closer and closer to her.

It's only the groan and scrape of the elevator doors that startle them to pull apart.

They both smooth down their clothes and push back their hair, and inch further with the crack of the doors splitting apart.

But the doors move slowly, slowly enough for Thor to laugh at the both of them waiting and Hilde to grin back and draw him back to her. 

They kiss again, and again and give no thought to the people behind the doors.

The sun has already set anyway, but it still feels warm against their skin.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this one-shot, hope you enjoyed it!  
> i'd love it if you guys leave kudos and comments (i love validation sorry)


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